LAHORE, Aug 8: More than 8,000 employees of former local councils working as union council secretaries in Punjab face dismissal after being declared part of the union council schedule of establishment by the Punjab Local Government Department.

All-Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation president Malik Muhammad Haseeb Khan and Secretary-General Qari Taj Muhammad said on Wednesday union councils had only one secretary with limited responsibilities prior to promulgation of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance of 2002 under which the sphere of activities of union councils was expanded and the number of secretaries increased to three. Employees of former district councils and urban local councils were posted against the new vacancies.

They said their jobs were at stake after a clarification issued by the Punjab Local Government Department on June 27 that the posts of employees of former local government department, district councils and urban councils working as secretaries and messengers in union councils had been excluded from the schedule of establishment of the former district councils and urban local councils and would be part of union council schedule of establishment.

They said the federation had learnt additional directors of the local government had started relieving the employees of former local councils from union councils directing them to report to tehsil or town municipal administrations despite the fact that their posts had been excluded from the schedule of establishment of former district councils and urban local councils.

The federation learnt the Local Government Department had decided to declare the posts against which the employees of former local councils were working vacant and invite applications for recruitment, they said.

They appealed to chief minister Pervaiz Elahi and local government minister Raja Basharat to regularise former local council employees working as secretaries and messengers in union councils as they had been excluded from the schedule of tehsil or town municipal administrations. The federation would also discuss the issue in an emergent meeting to be held here on Friday (tomorrow). — Reporter